Blinding White
by shibarrr
Summary: The Curse of the Arashigan. A girl carrying a pair of cursed eyes must fight tooth and nail to unveil the secrets of her family and remain in her village. Will the pressure of scared and abrasive comrades fearful of the unknown cause her to become blinded by hatred, or will it push her to achieve something amazing? (AU set in a land far, far away/ M for violence/ No schedule)
1. Prologue

A thick layer of snow crunched into footprint sized holes as a disheveled figure stumbled across it, poofs of powder being kicked up into the frigid, night air by her misplaced and clumsy steps. Sweat droplets became freezing cold as they winded their way down the terrified face of a young woman, vapor bellowing forth from her skin as her internal duress collided with the sub zero climate about her. Horrified glances were casted backwards, trying desperately to keep track of the white blur flicking from branch to branch above. A cloud of snow blowing out from beyond a far away trunk, a tiny pile of icicles being shaken from a swaying branch just behind her, and the creaking of a smaller alpine tree's limbs that had just been leapt from all exacerbated her panic. The sound of the woman's shrill screams were muffled by the howling winter blizzard that wreathed about the tundra woodlands. A sharp, blunt pain collided with the woman's right shoulder, causing her to trip and roll away in the deep, virgin layer of snow sitting atop the earth.

Spinning about in her personal crater the woman sat up in a frenzy, eyes frantically searching for their assailant and landing upon two gleaming white irises staring directly back at her, or rather past her, as if the tiny demon's vision was not recognizing her presence at all. Or so she would have thought, had the figure not unsheathed her katana and sheared off one of her arms with lethal accuracy. No longer having the mental fortitude to scream anymore, the woman fell onto her back again, squirming backwards against the edge of her shallow snow hole, the thin powder caving in quickly beneath her shattered shaking. Weak whimpers slipped from her numb lips as she eyed her profusely bleeding stump. Her face contorted into a visage of terror. Her hysterical and erratic breathing made her chest heave up and down like a malfunctioning piston. Teardrops began to mingle with the sweat on her face, the liquid freezing on her cheeks, never allowed to fall to the ground below.

"Fuyuka! Please! No, no, no! It's me! Please! STOP JUST ST-" her pleas were silenced by a swift cleaving sound, blood from precise evisceration spraying in a straight line parallel to her now slit neck, like a painter's practiced stroke of red paint onto a fresh canvas. Gleaming white eyes didn't pay any attention to the figure beneath them and merely stared off into the night sky aloofly as the short silhouette resheathed her sword, only for her head to snap to a new sound in the clearing, only detectable amidst the howling gales because of her heightened hearing. The girl flourished her blade once again making two quick strikes above her head, her strokes deflecting two kunai thrown at inhuman speeds towards her back. Her arm still extended out mid swing left her core vulnerable however and a single fist materialized inches from her side and her eyes, still silvery and wide as the moon barely made out a white bear mask before her entire frame was rocked and she was blown wildly across the small clearing like a cannonball, only coming to rest upon swatting against a tree and releasing an intense exhale as she felt half her ribcage collapse. The tree she had been flung into instantly froze into ice where she had impacted, the splinters being encased in a cold crystal shell. A katana dug itself into the ice, narrow cracks rippling out from where the tip had been placed to support the girl trying to upright herself again.

Flickers and reflections of moonlight were picked up with godlike eyesight and the girl lashed out with her blade once again, perfectly parrying the now dozens of kunai and shuriken shot at her. However, this time upon finishing her absurd defense against the thrown weapons, she ducked, a leg whipping past where her head was milliseconds ago and halving the tree she'd been near in an explosion of wood and ice shards. Using the downward momentum from her dodge to lodge her katana into the ice again, the girl gave a shriek of exertion and her eyes shined ever brighter. Spears of ice shot out of the earth like pikes being thrusted upwards from hell, impaling the masked figure that had attempted the same trick twice versus her. Run through by several barrel thick stakes of ice, the figure's mask fell from his face, one of the spikes having scraped just against his cheek, reaving a long slash from his mouth to the back of his head. Warm brown eyes searched the girl's own cold orbs, seemingly searching for something.

"I'm sorry Kazuki," he whispered in pained breaths. "I'm sorry Yakusoka-sama. And most of all," he managed to gurgle up words amidst the thick stream of blood waterfalling from the corner of his lips, "I'm sorry Fuyu." His head fell forward limply, his body still suspended up in the air before the backdrop of the pale moon as if he were victim of a stage play tragedy, hanging in the spotlight. No eyes met his harrowing finale though, as white irises began to blink away, their strobing causing the snow remaining around the girl to become completely frozen as she fell to a knee. Calm baby blue began to emerge from behind the white shutters and eyelids. A single teardrop, too warm and determined to be frozen by the temperature, slipped from her chin and fell to the ground below. The girl soon followed it, collapsing unconscious in the center of the scene of carnage. The wind howled ever louder and the moon reached its peak in the nocturnal sky, the hand that guided it across the dark abyss pausing in a moment of mourning at the calamity before continuing its descent. That night was colder than most.


	2. Chapter 1

Fuyuka Tsundora didn't get cold. The harsh winter storms that plagued the Land of Frost year round never managed to make her shiver in the least, but then again she was sort of an anomaly. Every day just as the sun cracked over the horizon she would make her way out to a secluded dojo in the mountains and train with her masked sensei, just as she had for the entirety of the decade she'd been alive. She'd pass through the hollow alleyways that made up Shimogakure, the hanging lanterns and open street fires not yet lit as the majority of the population still rested easy in their homes, hidden from the frigid remains of the night air. To the few early risers who'd be dredging through the fresh coating of snow that layered the pathways of the village, the sight of the young girl was commonplace and they'd just duck away to the sides of the corridors so as to get out of her way. Fuyuka's eyes paid them no heed and her feet methodically carried her up the winding streets that led to her mountaintop reverie.

Just as dawn's beams began to refract inside of the hundreds of icicles hanging from alcoves and ledges, Fuyuka would enter the dojo from the front, the doorway facing the east and admitting a lofty amount of sunshine into its interior. Beaten wooden walls and cragged planks surrounded a coarse and sawdust shrouded floor. Per usual, the tall and lean figure in a gray flak jacket leaned against a wooden column on the far edge of the weathered, wooden chamber, his white eagle mask not moving to acknowledge her arrival.

"Do your warm ups," his monotonous voice rang out against the bland floorboards. Fuyuka gave a simple nod, slowly taking her sheathed katana from her side and laying it down carefully on the ground before moving to the center of the room and beginning her stretches. As she limbered up her legs she felt old cuts and scars begin to pull at her skin, threatening to reopen if exacerbated too heavily. The bruises on her hands and forearms groaned out at her as she pressed them into the ground while stretching her calves. Eventually standing once again and reclaiming her katana, she made her way to the center of the room solemnly, cracking her neck and nodding at the avian masked silhouette. With a sigh, the man pushed himself off of the pillar and rushed the young girl, killing intent radiating off of him like mist.

A high cross was parried with both her hands bolstering her sheathed katana, and a low kick was deflected by a quick jab of her left foot. A swooshing sound and a screaming in her gut instincts made her spin to her right, a fist uppercutting by her side and into air where her stomach would've just been. Air spiralled off the fist due to the speed and precision it was thrown with but Fuyuka would have no time to admire as another barrage of limbs came at her again, her panting becoming more audible by the second. Countless flurries of fists and a lethal assault of legs drove her around the room like a broom sweeping dust. The rushing of air that coated every strike stung on her ears as the cold amplified the blasts of wind, seemingly imbuing them with a sort of freezing property. Or at least she would've hoped it was only something that seemed, as her keen eyes flicked to the final hand sign of her sensei's dexterous fingering.

"Hyoton: Frost Fist!" he shouted in a calm and practiced manner before swinging his fist, he was many meters away but Fuyuka had sparred against him enough to know what was happening. From where his thrust ended, a shell of ice the same shape as his fist shot out fast as a gunshot, blasting forth from his knuckles and flying at her head. For the first time in the fight, Fuyuka wrapped her cold, reddened fingers around the handle of her blade and unsheathed her katana in one clean slice, shattering the ice projectile into shards that clattered to the dojo floor. A shadow moving across the room was picked up and she turned to meet them, flourishing her katana in a downwards slash from shoulder to thigh, the slice rending the figure into halves before she drew her katana back and bursted forwards from her hind leg, thrusting her blade's tip through the core of the upper portion before twisting and withdrawing the cold steel. Her eyes widened in panic as the man slumped to the ground and poofed into a cloud of smoke. A strike to her back caused to her to explode forwards from blunt force, her small frame being launched from one end of the dojo to the other, the wall where she impacted splintering into a cloud of dust and wooden fragments. Coughing up blood Fuyuka tried to roll over, ignoring the pleas of her body to remain put, but as she turned to face her sensei, his kunai was inches from her throat, the tip drawing a single droplet of blood from the pressure with which he applied it to her pale skin.

"You lasted a bit longer than usual today, did something happen?" he queried, withdrawing his kunai and flicking the drop of blood to the floor before resheathing it in its holster.

Fuyuka tried to understand what answer he was looking for but his mask revealed no motives or emotion, "No." Single word utterances were normal for Fuyuka and after the many years her sensei had been around her, he knew he'd get nothing more from the taciturn girl.

Shaking his head he rose to his feet and made his way back to the center of the room, "Very well, let's continue."

* * *

It was noon when Fuyuka began her descent from the mountain to the village. The sun was high in the sky and small puddles of slush began to congregate on the edges of the towns walkways. People were out and about now. Families took the flea market, couples walked to cafes, and elders ever so slowly rocked back in forth on chairs from their porches, taking in the gracious sun that had showed itself during the cold winter they were experiencing. Not that Fuyuka cared for any of that, people just meant more whispers. People being out and seeing her just meant scared glances. It just meant parents hiding their children and shushing them when they asked questions. Fuyuka was a child too, and if she had anything it was questions. She didn't long for parents, she longed for nothing actually. Fuyuka merely passed from one day to the next because she didn't know what else to do. Passion and purpose were forsaken when designing the small ten year old girl. She didn't train because she had a dream, she trained because the Shimokage told her to and she didn't care enough to say no. Given, the training she underwent was extremely rigorous and probably more than an adolescent should endure, but she was better for it.

This depressing train of thought was derailed as a boy barreled into her side, Fuyuka failing to sense him coming because of her distracted mind. The duo slid across the ice that lined the sidewalks of the village and fumbled through a stack of boxes, causing a small collapse of produce. Fuyuka was anything but surprised at this seemingly uncommon happening, it was becoming more like part of her daily schedule at this point. Kneeling above her, strawberry blonde hair now ironically doused red by smushed strawberries, a grinning boy looked down at her where she lay on her back with a stoic and tired expression.

"AH! Fu! Wow, I'm really sorry this always happens to you!" his genuine voice rushed the words out so fast Fuyuka swore she could see all the oxygen in his body leave him in the span of the sentence.

"Takumi-sama, are you alright!" a shy feminine voice asked after approaching wearily, the destruction caused by the two kids rolling into a market stand evidently being rough.

"Of course I am," the boy beamed, revealing two rows of perfect white teeth as his face scrunched up in brightness. "Oh but we gotta get out of here, they're catching up again!" Fuyuka's head rolled over to rest her right cheek on the cold stones of the street, attempting to see what Takumi was referencing to. Through the alleyway the boy had thrown himself out of, three younger looking teenagers with forehead protectors and comedically boring features funneled out and searched the area before their eyes landed on the trio of kids laying on the ground.

"Oh ho ho! We got you now you little shit!" the bravest of the three made a move to tackle Takumi from his kneeling position back to the ground. As he got closer he realized who the bright boy was actually sitting next to, and he tried to cancel all his forwards momentum at once, failing to find the necessary friction to not slip on the icy stones beneath. Fuyuka's eyes stayed trained on him the entire time he waved his arms about wildly and slid closer. The boy started visibly shaking and opted to fall onto his own rear and push himself backwards than to get any closer. He retreated to his uninteresting looking party of friends who were just as terrified at her presence and avoided her gaze like the plague.

"Ha ha! That's right run while you still can!" Takumi called after them jokingly, his smile growing wider the further they got away, pulling Fuyuka to a sitting position and slinging his arm around her shoulders.

"Oh not you again, you little brat! Speak for yourself!" an angry voice called out as an old man charged the trio with a frying pan, the fresh remains of his produce splattered across his apron.

"Ah! You! Come on Fu, let's get out of here," he wrapped his hand around hers and pulled the light girl to her feet, choosing not to let go of her but instead try to lead her through another nearby corridor that broke off from the street they were on. The nervous looking girl, who Fuyuka made note was blonde, followed suit and the three sped off into the maze of backstreets Shimogakure hosted.

"Why did they run away?" the quiet voice managed to ask in between gasps for breath, the girl obviously struggling to maintain the pace of Takumi and Fukuya.

Carefree amber eyes casted in a backwards glance met Fuyuka's own cyan irises, "Because Fu is much stronger than they are," he said amidst a smile. Fuyuka's eyes widened as she took in every detail of his grin, feeling a stirring deep within her. This always happened when this troublesome boy was around.

Takumi Yakusoka was the son of the Shimokage and was loved by all citizens of the Village Hidden in the Frost, foretold to be the future of the village. The chosen child who would lead them into a golden era, breaking through at the forefront of the world and redefining the village as something more than weak and mediocre at best. Which is why it never made sense why he didn't mind her presence. Why he didn't wilt beneath her gaze and try to evade her like she was some sort of bubonic ridden baby. Why he insisted to somehow always be a piece of her everyday life, like some sort of blindingly bright puppy that'd follow her around, oblivious to everyone else's treatment of her.

"But those three just became chunin!" the quiet girl's question spoken with traces of doubt lacing her soft spoken tongue. The trio whirled around a corner and came to a rest, Takumi finally unhanding Fuyuka. The cool air crashed back into the skin where he had just been holding her hand and the difference in temperature made no sense to the still befuddled girl who'd been dragged into another one of Takumi's antics. As Fuyuka examined her hand, the girl who'd been in tow of Takumi took a chance to analyze her. Stark white hair bound in a high ponytail on her head, tied back with a light blue ribbon, framing her sharp featured face and thin lips. A dark blue hakama covered her legs, emblazoned with a symbol of three hydrangeas and her torso was beneath a simple white blouse. Her thin neck was tucked away beneath a thick brown fur hood and collar. One of her pale white hands, covered in cuts, rested atop the hilt of a katana on her left hip. Most notable of all, the final piece of the human puzzle per say, were her eyes; pools of cyan dotted with uninvolved, hollow black irises. "Could it be, Takumi is she-", she began to ask before the boy raised a hand slowly, waving her off and shaking his head slowly with knowing eyes.

"Thanks for bailing me out of trouble again Fu! I'm glad I can always depend on you snap some sense into those bullies," he said as he wrapped his arm around the blonde girl, who the more Fuyuka looked at the more she noticed how she was the spitting image Takumi. "They always like to pick on us Yakusoka kids like it'll make their insecurities fade away if they get at us," his words coincidentally answering the questions forming on Fuyuka's mind. She'd never met Takumi's sister. "Why don't you introduce yourself Sis, you should be a little more kind to our saviour don't you think?" he asked with a forced smile and eyes that hid a threat only siblings would understand.

"Ah," her weary amber eyes, the same shade as Takumi's, wavered beneath Fuyuka's uninterested surveyal. "I'm Hikari Yakusoka," she finally managed to murmur while casting her eyes to the ground beneath them with such intensity Takumi swore the snow started to melt. Her shoulder length blonde locks swayed back and forth just above the collar of her own sternly buttoned navy blue blouse as she waited for a name in return from her unexpected new acquaintance.

After a small pointed nod and slowly turning shoulder to leave, a shallow voice replied, "Fuyuka."

Ruffling his hair sheepishly Takumi slapped his younger sister on her back and began to drag her from the alleyway, "Anyways I'll see you soon Fu, stay safe." The last two words of his sentence took on a much more serious tone than he'd presented through all their prior interactions, but it seemed to have gone right over both the girl's heads, the white locks of the katana wielder already having disappeared around a corner.

* * *

"Ah, it's just you Fuyuka," an older and more rugged voice spoke. The girl gave a small nod as the shop owner peaked his head out into the back alley behind his store. Kikuma, the big and bearded owner of the most popular food joint in the village, Kuma Shishkebabs, had always given her a free shishkebab every single day for as long as she could remember. The store owner had found her walking by his store late at night past closing time and with a warm, nostalgic look in his eyes pulled her aside and offered her a shishkebab. The restaurant happened to be directly on her route home so everytime Fuyuka went by, the behemoth of a man would offer her one, and her childish taste buds got the better of her stern social exterior in this case, the assorted meat sticks quickly becoming her favorite food. It had just become part of her everyday schedule at this point to stop by on her way home from training sessions. Kikuma, never having had kids himself, was ever awkward around the small girl, not knowing how exactly to converse with the youth of the village. "That sensei of yours sure doesn't hold back does he?" he worriedly asked taking in her fresh wounds of the day that weren't hidden beneath her clothing. Fuyuka nodded quickly as she took a large bite of a chunk of tough reindeer meat. "Look you've got a real nasty one here," Kikuma said as he pointed a finger to her collar. Fuyuka's eyes slowly turned downwards not remembering receiving a wound there. Her curiosity was rewarded by a prompt flicking of her nose by Kikuma's pointer finger, "Gotcha kiddo," he snickered. Fuyuka didn't seem to understand the gesture and used her shishkebab free hand to squish her nose between her thumb and fingers, not a fan of the stinging sensation this vile trick entailed. She narrowed her eyes at Kikuma and turned to continue home. "See you around Fuyuka-kun!" he called after her, his eyes becoming softer as she vanished around a corner. Shaking his head with a nostalgic sigh he ducked back into his store to attend to his many waiting customers.

* * *

"I'm home," a single, meek voice rang out amidst dusty, abandoned hallways. Wood creaked and dust blew in response to her greeting. Paying no mind to the decrepit state of her home, Fuyuka took off her wooden sandals and stepped into the main hallway. She walked in a straight line with her head still pointed downwards as she made her way past dozens of empty rooms with no lights. She eventually turned left, her dexterous footwork making the unpolished wooden planks beneath her feet barely mewl under the pressure. She'd been alone for as long as she could remember.

The Shimokage met with her often in person, which was odd because she was a child, but apparently her parents were very important in the village. On one such meeting he told her that her parents have been away on a very crucial mission for the last six years. Or was it seven? Fuyuka had no memories of her parents and thus her desire to discover more was rather lackluster. Of course she would wonder, she'd stare up at the night sky and wonder where they were. Puzzled for what was so important that they abandoned her, that they never visited. She'd ponder alone, wrapped amidst her bedsheets and muffled beneath pillows what it'd be like to be part of a family. She'd sneak empty glances at the stars beyond her grasp and wonder if they were staring up at the same sky, counting down the days till they reunited with their daughter. Fuyuka also knew that this was wishful thinking, growing up alone made her shell thick enough to realize what was likely and what wasn't. Her parents coming home, she'd decided after years of waiting, was unlikely.

Fuyuka eventually turned into the door frame of one of the only lit rooms in her entire home, making her way into the kitchen. If there was a single room in the Tsundora estate that could be considered well maintained, it would be the kitchen, this by no means meant it was clean however, only that it was used. The Shimokage supplied the girl with a small allowance that scaled with her age, the older she became the more funding she received. It was just enough to feed herself and fix the occasional hole in her roof, but not enough that she could spend any of it on entertainment. That being said, she was never really afforded lessons on how to take care of herself so her home rituals were a tad bit… odd.

Stepping over old bag ands used plates from takeout, Fuyuka made her way over to the fridge and swung open the door slowly, peeking inside with desperate hope. Her dream of a tasty meal was shattered when all that met her leering was a single rice ball. Shutting her eyes tight and swiping the morsel she strode back across the room, her foot breaking through an old, empty box of ramen noodles as she agitatedly stormed out of the kitchen. Once back in the hallway she went directly straight out into the open air courtyard of the estate and leapt up onto the traditionally shingled roof. Slinging a leg over an open window sill, Fuyuka made her way into her small sort of attic bedroom that existed in the tallest section of the manor. She removed her katana from her waist, setting it on a simple wooden table near a twin sized bed covered in fur pelts. Finishing the rice ball in three gluttonous mouthfuls, she flicked the wrapper across the room.

Fuyuka threw herself down onto the bed face first with the same grace as a diver flipping into a concrete floor. She let out an exhale that seemed to last much too long, the sound muffled by the thick assorted black and brown fur blankets. She stretched her limbs out until she felt the edges of her mattress, her muscles becoming pulled taut, her tendons being pushed to their maximum range of motion. Various pops and cracks sounded out as she relaxed her body from head to toe. A small, content smile appeared on her face for the first time all day, her discovery of respite within her bastion of cloth and fabric greatly pleasing her.

"Oi, you're gonna be late for afternoon training, what are you slacking off for Tsundora," a familiar, dreary voice sounded out from her window sill. Not even bothering to turn to the sound or spend time being surprised at the colorless voice that had snuck up on her without detecting it at all, she simply let out a faint groan against her favorite pillow. "Let's get going kid, come on," his tone wasn't upset or demanding, it never had any emotion in it to her knowledge. He could've been a robot and she wouldn't have been phased at all. Hiss uninteresting personality and tongue left much to be suspected about when and by whom he was assembled; not that she was somebody in a position to criticize.

"I'm coming," she breathed out against her cherished, feather cloud cushion. She swung herself upright and lobbed her legs over the edge of the bed. Running her calloused hands across her face she paused as she felt something sticky on her thumb.

"Do I need to carry you or-" he dragged the last r of his or out, giving a deadpan look at her dogged progress at getting out of bed from her minute long nap. Fuyuka's eyes snapped onto a gelatinous, red substance dotted onto the inside of her thumb and shook her head, standing up and striding across the room, retrieving her katana before moving to the window. Her robot sensei leapt away and as she raised her right leg to push herself out of the window sill, she slipped her thumb into her mouth. It tasted of strawberries.


	3. Chapter 2

Finishing her weekend meant Fuyuka had to forgo her two training sessions a day for one morning session amongst the chilly pillars of the mountain dojo and then class at the academy. She was less than excited to attend the latter. Eyes glued to the ground like somebody had bound them to it with chains, Fuyuka made her way to her classroom. Entering the room she was met with the side profile of her homeroom teacher, Bani. Long black hair waterfalled down her shoulders and all the way to her lower back and her chin was so sharp that Fuyuka swore the motion of her turning to look at her sliced a rift into the cold air of the classroom. The staple gray flack jacket of the village's ninja did little to conceal her womanly curves and every adolescent boy in the room knew this fact, testosterone fueling their staring like gasoline unto fires of budding perversion.

"Punctual as usual Ms. Tsundora," she gave a small nod of approval and turned back to the papers on her podium at the head of the class. The praise fell on deaf ears and Fuyuka walked parallel to the front row of seats, taking her place in the leftmost seat of the front. Almost nobody ever sat next to the girl, as if her presence in the seat caused a whirlpool that made the students incapable of sitting in close proximity to her. Or just the majority of them she reiterated to herself, as a boy with memorably blonde hair plopped down right next to her rambunctiously.

"Morning Tsundora!" he rang out like a bell striking the top of the hour, his sudden volume making her twinge in surprise. She shot upright in her seat, the rest of the class' eyes briefly flicking to her to see what the commotion was about before returning to their endless game of avoidance, used to the two youngest members of their class' disturbances.

"So loud," she murmured under her breath, running her right hand through her hair before resting her cheek on it. She released a weak sigh as she saw the glowing face of the Yakusoka boy creeping into her peripheral vision, teeth beaming white in an innocent grin. She knew better than to fall for the trick behind his teeth, flashbacks of their daily collisions making her rub her ribcage with her free hand.

"Ok class settle down, it's about time we got started," Bani-sensei waved the class down with a single, lazy hand gesture. The boys snapped to attention like they'd been shocked into perfect stature via static discharge from her tired wave. The girls, used to the antics, ceased their chatter and centered their focus on their teacher. "For today I think it's perfect weather to give Chakra Skating another shot," she said as she snuck a sideways glance out the second story windows of the spacious room. Children groaned and some huzzahed, obviously not everyone in the class being proficient at the basic but necessary skill. "Let's get going," she strode out of the classroom, not bothering to organize the students or wait to see if they followed. Takumi bolted like lightning and shot forth from his chair and out the classroom after the teacher, the other kids following suit, conversing quietly amongst themselves. Fuyuka waited. She waited for the classroom to be completely silent, for their footsteps to disappear down the hall. Then she stood and with a great lack of jubilance and made her way to the courtyard where she knew the drill would be taking place. Her footsteps were the only sound in the hallway, her simple wooden sandals clanking against the well crafted planks of the two story wooden schoolhouse.

She pushed her way out of the double doors at the back end of the school, the cool air slamming against her like polar tsunami. The scene before her was made up of Bani-sensei leaning back deeply into a foldable chair in the snow, watching the kids of her class while stifling yawns. The small lake that was located behind the school was completely frozen over and the children in her class were all out on the ice already, infusing their feet with chakra so as not to slip or crack the ice. Takumi was dedicatedly committing himself to his training, dashing suicides back and forth across the expanse of the frozen over water surface, the girls in the class cheering him on like an entourage of seagulls circling a piece of food left out on the beach.

"You're not gonna get away this time Tsundora-kun, get to it," Bani-sensei called out, not needing to turn to notice her tardy arrival. Fuyuka moved to the edge of the frozen precipice and looked down at her sock covered feet. Children of Shimogakure were taught from a young age how to warm themselves, primarily their feet and fingers. This was in order to avoid losing appendages to frostbite There were those who would forgo this everyday use of chakra and just wear fur boots or gloves, but the limitations that would place on the dexterity of a shinobi could prove fatal, and thus most ninja students just constantly kept their appendages warmed. The next step up from that was learning to cross ice without slipping, which was done by funneling chakra into the shape of a small blade that ran along the base of one's foot, in the same exact way the blade of an ice skate worked. The Land of Frost was covered in frozen bodies of water and stray ice so learning how to skate on chakra was general curriculum taught to every child.

Fuyuka sighed as she focused her chakra into the soles of her feet, the action practically muscle memory at this point. Pushing herself off of the snowy bank, she slid out onto the ice in completely comfortable lunges. She could feel the Bani-sensei's eyes on her back, as well as the nervous glances of her classmates that ended up skating too close to her. One such girl, who lost control of her chakra skates, slipping and sliding, ended up face down only a couple feet away from Fuyuka. Fuyuka dug the edges of her chakra into the ice, kicking up a cloud of powder into the air and stopping her movement. She turned to the prone girl and squatted down on her knees, eyeing the quivering figure curiously with unperturbed eyes. She felt the urge to help her for some reason, the sensation foreign to the normally isolate girl. Fuyuka struggled to think of what she should do in this situation. Looking inwards, she recalled when her eagle-masked sensei taught her to chakra skate and she had fallen, he would pull her back to her feet and tell her to try again.

For once. she'd try she decided. Suddenly nodding and rallying her spontaneous courage, her face still only a couple feet away from the shaking female below her, she extended an open hand to the girl and looked to her for the first time. Fuyuka's opened hand, covered in cuts and calluses, was swatted away just as she saw the look of pure terror on the girl, fresh tears streaming down her taut face. Fuyuka was so confused by the girl's reaction that she failed to notice another boy from her classroom barreling into her side, pushing her off balance and launching her across the surface of the ice. Fuyuka's head cleared instantly upon being struck and she tumbled back to her feet some twenty meters away from where the crying girl was.

"Stay away from her you freak!," the boy threatened her violently, flashing through some hand signs before putting his hand to the surface of the ice. The solid, foot thick layer of ice beneath Fuyuka began to squeal and small fractures appeared within it. The boy's attack proved to not be sufficient and the ice remained intact. This was how they saw her then, right? Her attempt at an act of goodwill was met with an attack and slurs. Per usual. Very well.

Fuyuka began flashing through same hand signs rapidly as well, her eyes gleaming with childish fury. Rearing back to slam her fist into the ice and emit her chakra into it, Fuyuka's arm was caught harshly before she could launch it into the jab. Looking back in shock, she saw Takumi holding her arm by her elbow, his face devoid of his usual glee, a disappointed thin line in its place, his shoulders heaving from exertion and steam radiating from his skin. She'd never seen him make that expression before.

She shook him off of her arm, rubbing her hands together and exhaling into them. Bani-sensei was on the ice, swatting the kids with her hands and beckoning Fuyuka and Takumi to follow her. Fuyuka shook her head in anger before making her way back to shore, her eyes throbbing.

* * *

"Do you have a death wish boy?" Bani asked the boy who'd attacked Fuyuka on the lake. The downcast boy was seated across from a pacing Bani in the Headmaster's Office, the white bearded man present for the scolding. "Why would you ever think it was a good idea to do that?" she criticized his brashness for the thousandth time.

"She was hurting Yuki! Am I just supposed to watch that monster attack my friends? Why is she even in our class in the first place?" the boy gripped the arm rests of his chair till his knuckles turned white, his youthful temper making him explode.

"She's a kid just like you Hotaru-kun," the calm voice of the Headmaster spoke out, not phased by the tantrum or the events unfolding in his academy.

"She's not a kid Headmaster," he stood now, swiping the air in front of him to emphasize his frustration, "and she never will be. She's a threat to the entire village and every person with a brain knows that!"

"And apparently you don't have much of a brain if you're going to assault her for no reason then, huh kid?" Bani questioned him agitatedly.

"Enough Bani, don't berate the child, his parents will be here soon enough and they'll take care of that plenty," he spoke levelly, Hotaru blanching and shaking at the thought of the terror his parents would unleash on him after finding out about this commotion. "Bani, take Hotaru-kun to the main entrance to make sure he doesn't run from his parents," he commanded her with a sigh, massaging his forehead with two old, wrinkled fingers. With a nod, Bani picked Hotaru up by his collar, the boy squealing at being lifted so abruptly, but he knew better than to try and escape from Bani-sensei and submitted himself to the embarrassing form of transport, ragdolling and letting his toes drag against the wooden floor. Bani paused for a moment as she pressed her free hand against the door. She felt it before she heard or saw it. She could feel the teeming mass of unbalanced chakra sitting just outside the door. It felt freezing and harsh, like a winter gale laced with thorns. Pushing the door open wide, she and Hotaru were met with the sight of Fuyuka seated on the bench in the hallway just outside the Headmaster's office, her eyes shrouded by her white hair falling down around her face. Shaking her head, Bani continued down the hallway, Hotaru's eyes narrowing at the girl as he was carried by.

"Your turn Tsundora-kun," an authoritative voice pushed aside the grey cloud she was brooding beneath. She looked up at him over her shoulder, her normally empty cyan eyes filled with frustration. She got up and brushed past him into his office. The Headmaster, who insisted on being referred to only as the Headmaster, was a diligent and wise man, and as such when he noticed a particular blonde haired boy leaning around a corner down the hallway, trying to eavesdrop, he chose to pretend he didn't. He turned back into his office, leaving the door cracked at some miniscule angle. Inside his office, Fuyuka Tsundora was seated in front of his desk, her arms wrapped about her midsection, her katana awkwardly laying on her lap so that she could fit between the deep arm rests of the simple wooden chair. Instead of getting back into his superfluous headmaster's chair, he instead waddled over to the window on his short legs, arms behind his back and chest out, an aura of authority about his liquid movements. "You usually don't react so harshly Fuyuka-kun, what was different this time?" he didn't bother to sugar coat his voice, knowing he could spare the child the niceties. In all the years she'd been enrolled here, Fuyuka Tsundora had never reacted or given an inch to the harsh treatment thrown her way. She'd simply endure it or walk away. Fuyuka fiddled with her hair, twirling it between her pointer finger and her thumb. She was always ridiculed, always outcast from the whole. Always whispered about and slandered. This time was different, she nodded to herself, her lids sinking a bit and a small frown forming.

"I-," she stuttered, "I just wanted to try to help her." Her words were meek regardless of how bolstered her position on the dispute was in her mind. "It always ends like this, no matter what I do," Fuyuka struggled to get the words out, nibbling at the inside of her cheek.

"Mm, so it seems," the Headmaster responded in affirmation. He began stroking his knee length beard and closed his eyes in concentration, seemingly deeply in thought. As to what, Fuyuka had no idea. Her mind was racing. Normally she'd just get back in line and continue marching with the everyday itinerary of her poor treatment, but today she felt even more so personally betrayed.

"I just wish I could be normal, that I could fit in," she spoke, her tongue moving quicker and quicker as her stress infused with it, making her words fly out. "That I could not be made fun of all the time. That I'd have a family I could home to. That people wouldn't always talk about my stupid eyes! That for some reason, even someone like me could have a friend. And that PEOPLE WOULD ACTUALLY LOOK AT ME!" her words tailed off in a scream, her heart screeching just as loud. Fuyuka let out of few pants before noticing the sharp pain in her palms. The wooden armrests inside of her fingers had shattered and pincushioned her hands with splinters, miniscule streams of blood flowing across her inner palm. Her head throbbed and her eyes felt like they'd been coated in acid as she used the backs of her hands to paw at her panicked blinking. In front of her, the Headmaster was still looking out the window, eyes still pressed shut. When he finally did open his eyes, it was out the window with a forlorn look of nostalgia.

"Yet, you're not normal at all are you Fuyuka-kun?" his voice, a whisper, was amplified a thousand times in Fuyuka's head.

Not normal.

She shot to her feet like a flash and clenched her katana tight in her hands, turning to sprint out of the room, knocking over the broken wooden chair as she tried to escape. She slammed against the door with both her arms, swinging it open and knocking something heavy back that was on the other side. Her eyes were burning so hot it felt like magma had been funneled into her cornea.

"Fu?" she heard in between her pants and sniffles. Takumi was knocked onto the ground laying on his back, staring up at her, right into her eyes. She froze like she had been bound by an A-class Ice Release ninjutsu, eyes locking onto him like fixed spotlights brimming with tears. "Are you okay?" his worry was evident, even to a girl who wasn't used to hearing it directed towards herself. "Yo- your eyes Fu. What's wrong with your eyes?" the three lettered word she detested so had launched her back into her fit of fury, the white haired girl turning and sprinting down the opposite hallway, face buried in her elbow. It was always her eyes. Was that why her parents wouldn't come home? Why nobody would talk to her? Why it wasn't safe for the Yakusoka boy for her to be around? Why she couldn't live like a human being? For the first time in years, the taciturn girl screamed.

* * *

"Let her go Takumi-kun," the Headmaster ordered sternly as he shuffled through the doorway. Takumi turned to him in bewilderment.

"But look at her! Is she going to be okay?" his eyes the size of the moon, arms swinging in expression.

"She'll be perfectly fine, I know that much," he turned and nodded to a bunny-eared silhouette outside a window sitting on a tree branch, "I just pray everyone else will be." The outline flickered and disappeared just as a new wave of fresh snowfall started falling to the earth.

* * *

Fuyuka ran hard, as far as she could. She bumped into market stalls, tripped over boxes, crashed against alleyway walls. Eventually branches started whipping her face leaving small cuts, concrete beneath her turning to soil. Pieces of her clothing were ripped off by greedy sticks and bushels that she dove through. Her feet dampened from pushing into snow and caused her to lose her footing on a fallen trunk she was vaulting. She was launched over the side of a hill by her own forward momentum and rolled for what felt like minutes before having the wind knocked out of her by thwacking against a tree, a throbbing pain exploding in her midsection. Fuyuka pulled herself to her feet and braced herself against the tree she'd collided with, and she wept. Cold tears fell from fearful eyes just as fast as frosted snowflakes around her frail figure. She fell to her knees and rested the top of her head against the moist bark of the trunk, burying her quaking face in her hands. Her wailing was the only sound in the small clearing she'd ended up in. Tundra critters brave enough to poke their heads out of their holes were met with the sight of a small girl, white hair muddied and shoulders heaving, weeping in sorrow.

The sound of her tears pattering and sniffles was soon interrupted by the loud creaking of a branch above her. Fuyuka's head shot up, instincts screaming that she was being flanked, but it was too late. Two hands slammed against her throat just as she managed to turn around to be met with two black eye holes boring into her from a wolf masked man dressed in a grey flak jacket. Fuyuka panicked. She slammed her fists against the elbows and forearms of the man, flailing her entire lower body as she tried to find any leverage possible. Fuyuka eventually realized how little effect her frenzied and inaccurate blows were having against the tremendous strength of her assailant's pin. Without thinking, letting her instincts take control, she slid both her arms into the space between her stomach and the man above her, flashing some hand signs. The snow bank she'd landed in erupted on both sides as two spears of ice shot forth from them. The figure released her neck and rolled backwards, barely evading the two pole length shards of crystal. Fuyuka took his chance to roll to her side and get her footing back. She'd hoped she'd have a bit more time to regain her senses, taking rushed breaths as she tried to get oxygen back in her system, but the sound of the air hissing as it bent around a punch aimed for her head made her instead fall into a quick split. The jab flew through the area where her still tear fresh face was just seconds ago and resonated in a loud clap as the surrounding snow was blown away into a cloud of powder. Fuyuka's jaw dropped at the obviously Jonin-level taijutsu strike and began to fall into hysteria again, pushing off of the ground and leaping to the low branches. She channeled chakra into her feet and dashed from branch to branch, trying to get some distance between herself and the masked ambusher, clenching her katana fiercely at her side, her muscles tense and nerves screaming.

A violet bang sounded below her and the sound of shattered wood charged the entire forest. Fuyuka could only whelp in horror as the tree she was just about to land on exploded into thousands of wooden shards, the masked man sitting at the base of it, waiting for her to land within his range. Fuyuka brought her katana up in an attempt to block the massive strike she knew she was inevitably about to receive. Her wrists were blasted back numbed and her blade flew from her hands as a fierce shot walloped her guard. She failed however, to notice the follow up blow that dug so deep into her core she swore it ran her completely through. Fuyuka ragdolled across the clearing to the same effect as an angry child flinging their toy across their bedroom. Her torso crashed through a thinner tree, breaking it into pieces at the point of her impact. Falling to a heap the young girl struggled to keep her eyes open as the figure slowly approached her.

"I've been following you for some time you know, Tsundora girl," he spat with venom in his voice. "Waiting day by day for you to be alone, to be separated from that shithead Tsuba or your foolish teachers," he monologued to himself with the same level of insanity as a mad scientist completing their magnum opus. "And today, I finally got my chance," he turned to her and though she couldn't see his face beneath the mask of a snarling wolf, she knew he was smiling; smiling a terrible and maniacally toothy smile. Fuyuka's hand twitched as she tried feebly to move her body, her limbs refusing to be pushed any further, the worn muscles submitting to their fate. "These cursed eyes, should never have been created," he said as he wrapped his hands around her bruised cheeks, cradling her head in his fingers.

Her eyes. It was always her eyes. Her eyes. Eyes. Eyes. Eyes. Fuyuka's eyes. Her temper exploded again, her hands clenching white into fists, fingernails cutting into her own palms from the pressure, drawing blood. Her teeth clenched with the power of an alligator and every muscle in her body flexed in rage.

The world became white.

She'd kill this man.

With newfound strength, Fuyuka's flashed through hand signs lightning fast before slamming her palm against his jaw in an uppercut strike. The man's eyes widened as he was launched into the air. He turned in the air just to see the stake of ice firing from the ground beneath him.

"YES THERE IT IS! SHOW ME WHAT THOSE EYES CAN DO YOU LITTLE FREAK!" he boomed in excitement, driving his fist straight through the dagger sharp tip of the ice spear, shattering the entire pole in one blow with a delirious chuckle. Fuyuka discharged from the earth, the snow being kicked up in a wide circle around where she blasted off into the air. Chakra pumped through her system so rapidly that her movements felt swift and fierce as a tiger's. Finger's coated in glacial cold chakra, she unleashed a flurry of blows mid air against the much larger and more experienced shinobi. At first the man kept up with the jabs, countering and deflecting them with hysterical laughs. Eventually the lethal pummels began to connect more often. Every time her hands made contact, the impact site was frozen instantly, the flesh morphing into crystal.

Fuyuka's insane tempo of chakra infused strokes was weighing down on him, his limbs becoming heavier as ice accumulated. She slammed a hand into the side of his neck causing his entire face to become numb. A well placed kick to his thigh rolled him over midair to his side, Fuyuka finishing off her savage combo by cupping her hands together and spiking them into the man's ribs, shooting him back to earth like an airstrike, shattering all the ice that coated him. Where he landed, snow was blasted back in a radius of a hundred feet, tree limbs were stripped off of their host trunks, and the wind howled as it was unwillingly pushed away. Fuyuka landed just before the man, eyes still burning with hatred. She clawed the collar of his flak jacket and flung him towards a faraway tree, quickly dashing after him and immediately forming fluid hand seals mid-air.

A pillar of ice shot up on the other side of the clearing, launching her katana from where it had landed earlier back into the air in front of her. She caught it mid-leap with her left hand in a front flip, bringing the blade over her head and unsheathing it with such speed it hissed like a snake, making one quick slash. A thin line of red appeared on the projectiled man's arm and he screamed in horror and his right arm was completely amputated from the elbow forwards, the severed limb flying off across the clearing into the snowbank. The man just then slammed against a tree trunk, his remaining limbs blasting backwards as his spine cracked against the sturdy tundra wood. Fuyuka flourished her blade, pulling it back to her side and then shooting it forwards in a thrust. The tip of her katana missiled through his chest, punching out the other end of the tree. The impaled man coughed up a fountain of blood as he was run cleanly through. Fuyuka focused her chakra through her hand into her blade and the complete steel edge exploded outwards with ice inside of the man. With no direction or target, ice shards pierced skin and bark alike, rupturing in every direction, some stray stakes clipping Fuyuka and drawing blood. She pulled her sword from the mans chest and flicked the blood from the blade before resheathing it in one practiced motion. Her eyes were empty, not looking at the man anymore; they weren't looking at anything.

"Li-, little freak, go to hell," he stuttered as blood flowed from his mouth faster than his syllables could, "with the rest of your demon family." He fell limply, ice still skewering him to the tree, blood pooling beneath him in a block or red ichor, freezing over from the frigid aura Fuyuka emitted. Fuyuka stood there, staring into nothingness, hands at her sides, for minutes more. The snowfall ended up creating a small pile on her head and shoulders from her lack of movement or heat. Her muscles flared as a silhouette bathed in moonlight stepped out from behind a tree. Her nerves attempted to fire themselves back into action but fell short of rebounding from exhaustion. Then, just as the moon reached its midnight peak in the sky, she collapsed.


End file.
